New art faces continue to emerge at New Bern ARTcrawl

Saturday

The final ARTcrawl of 2013 on Friday night brought a good crowd to downtown New Bern despite chilly weather.

The final ARTcrawl of 2013 on Friday night brought a good crowd to downtown New Bern despite chilly weather.

The weather was actually conducive to one of the attractions — machine-made snow, which sprinkled down on a packed Bear Town Plaza.

The event, a product of the Community Artist Will group, had artists, musicians and demonstrating craftsmen sprinkled throughout downtown.

As has been the case for each of the monthly walking tours, more new faces came out to show off their talents.

Brandy Baxter, a Pamlico County native who has called New Bern home for five years, was bundled up and working on paintings in the Isaac Taylor Garden. Baxter, 22, has been serious about art since her sophomore year at Pamlico County High School. She began selling her works in her first year at Craven Community College, where she attained an Associate in Fine Arts degree.

Her day job is working with a cleaning service.

“One day, I hope to do my art full time,” she said.

Among the pieces she has sold were two that were purchased from the Greater Good Gallery by representatives of the television show “Sleepy Hollow,” which has done filming in New Bern.

With a subject narrative of mostly people and animals, the show used the pieces in the background of one of the episodes. One painting is that of a man with a pig’s head. It was based on her interpretation of Francisco De Goya’s 1823 painting of Saturn devouring his son. The other painting is a bird, with a nest of hair.

Another relatively new craftsman locally is Elisa Schulman, who designs and sells beaded jewelry, such as bracelets and rings.

She sold her piano to get into bead design and earn some money.

“I’m also having a lot of fun,” she said. “It (bead design) just came to me, so I got into beading.”

She moved to New Bern 30 years ago from Long Island for “a change of pace.” She said she had been impressed with the advances in the arts community over the years.

Another new artist is woodworker Gregory Fahy, who after being laid off from his job at a local grocery earlier this year got the idea to do wood art. Now, he is producing large designer tables and other objects and has a studio in Bridgeton. He also has the New Bern Round House, built 15 feet off the ground, which is a vacation or getaway rental.

As for his woodworking, he spends as much as 100 hours or more on a piece, such as a table he had at the Greater Good Gallery. It was originally chainsawed from the heart of a cedar.

His work is available on the artists sale web site: etsy.com

As families assembled at Bear Plaza for the snow show, New Bern High junior Austin Gartin was playing guitar, with a tip hat on the sidewalk. He has been playing guitar for six months and has a band, Psychotic Hippies. In his solo playing, he does mostly folk, with some rock.

“I have come to almost every one (ArtWalk and ARTcrawl) to play some music and lighten up the mood,” he said. “Our band is to bring people together, to realize and focus on the good parts of life.”

Charlie Hall can be reached at 252-635-5667 or Charlie.hall@newbernsj.com

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